


that’s the way i loved you

by aryasbadbenergy



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/M, Fluff, Lyric fic, Smut, also cat and robb really just do not vibe with axg, and arya/ned is mostly just used as a foil, arya/gendry are not together in the current time period, arya/gendry is reminiscent, but if you don’t like axg w other ppl ever at all this is probs not the fic for you, for axg of course, gendryaweek, gendryaweek2020, i definitely chose to make the starks patricians bc of the connection to a ‘gentry’, not happy ending, so if you wanted a positive mother-daughter relationship this is not the fic for you, the way i loved you, their relationship is told in flashbacks, this is told a lot in flashbacks so dont get lost aha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:40:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22997071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aryasbadbenergy/pseuds/aryasbadbenergy
Summary: arya stark is in a comfortable relationship. but when she is faced with the very real possibility that she may be asked to marry him, she can’t stop herself from thinking about her first love.((named for the song “the way i loved you” by taylor swift ! please listen to the song as you read you will not regret it !!))
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Edric "Ned" Dayne/Arya Stark, pls read tags before you read
Comments: 34
Kudos: 112





	that’s the way i loved you

**Author's Note:**

> big thank you to gendrydeservedbetter for posting the idea in the discord server and thank you icontainmultitudes and starkmaiden for your great headcanons ! ((also thanks to whole discord gang aha ur all so great and supportive!!))
> 
> also happy gendrya appreciation week even if i am a little late posting this aha!! i'm so grateful to be a part of this fandom and i hope you all enjoy this oneshot!

**He is sensible and so incredible**

**And all my single friends are jealous**

**He says everything I need to hear and it's like**

**I couldn't ask for anything better**

“Ned is perfect,” Talea sighs. 

“He really is. He’s got such nice eyes, Arya,” Brea agrees. 

Arya smiles a little. “They are nice.”

“I don’t think any boy has ever opened a door for me,” Talea sighs as her sister rolls her eyes. 

“You’ve been on three real dates.”

“And it was three times that a boy never opened the door for me.” 

“You’re a baby,” Brea grumbles. “So, you’ve got your two year anniversary together next week, right?”

“Yeah, we do,” Arya sips her water. “Two years, wow.” She takes another drink to process it. It definitely doesn’t feel like it’s been two years together. 

“So when do you think he’ll propose?”

Arya nearly spits out her drink. 

* * *

“Arya!” Sansa calls. Arya whips around at the shout from her sister. It was one thing for her sister to shout in their house, but they were in the middle of the estate grounds. This was a rare occasion. ”I need to talk to you,” she says. 

“I’ve gathered that much,” Arya teases. 

“Come on,” Sansa grabs her wrist and practically drags her along. 

“Alright.” Sansa leads them to the kitchen and Arya pulls out a small ice cream container from the freezer and a spoon. “So what was so important that you were running down the road like a madwoman?” 

“I was not acting like a madwoman. And you’re probably gonna want to sit down for this.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Arya grimaces and pops the lid off the ice cream. She sits down on one of the stools and pushes her spoon into the carton. 

“I wish you wouldn't do that,” Sansa admits. “And it’s good news. Very good.” Arya shrugs and raises her eyebrows for Sansa to go on with her good news. 

“Ned is going to propose to you.” Arya drops her spoon on the ground. Sansa says it so matter-of-factly that Arya can only blink long enough for Nymeria to eat the majority of the ice cream off the spoon, which finally pulls Arya to her senses. 

“Nymeria, no!” Arya shouts, pulling the chocolate covered spoon away. She sets it in the sink and presses her hands against the countertop. Was the world spinning or was it just her?

“Arya,” Sansa attempts to get her attention again. “He’s going to—” 

“I heard you the first time.” Sansa folds her hands across her lap. “I just… he can’t—he’s not— _propose_? We’ve been together for two years! We’ve barely ever talked about marriage! I mean he’s brought it up sure, but … how—how does he know that I don’t snore? Would we move in together first? I bet he doesn’t know that I want my spaghetti noodles and spaghetti sauce to be served separate at dinner because sometimes I don’t like the same pasta to sauce ratio and I don’t always know what it will be while cooking so I wait until I’m dishing up to decide and—” 

“Arya,” Sansa cuts in. Interrupting wasn’t usually a habit of hers. “I think you need to drink some water and lie down or something to process this.”

“You think?” 

“Go lay down. You do this all the time. You’re such a hard pass for commitment,” Sansa teases. At least it feels like it _should be_ teasing. Arya wants to correct her, because that’s not true, but she feels too dizzy. She needs time to process her new information. And to call Shireen. She was engaged. She would know what Arya should do. Or Myrcella. She was married. At least _one_ of her friends was bound to know. 

**He opens up my door and I get into his car**

**And he says, you look beautiful tonight**

**And I feel perfectly fine**

“Hello, Arya,” Ned smiles at her. “Happy anniversary.”

Arya smiles back. He reaches for her cheek to pull her into a kiss, but Arya shimmies—not inconspicuously—out of his grasp. “Sorry, you’re right. That’s not appropriate in front of your parents,” he says and pushes a strand of her hair behind her ear as a substitute. 

“Happy anniversary.” She tries to think of what else she should even say, but nothing comes up. 

He was probably going to propose to her. Propose. She hadn’t really considered their relationship that far. Of course she loved him, and she wanted to be with him, but she hadn’t been considering anything as permanent as marriage. When her mother brings the topic up, Arya usually just starts thinking about her to-do list and waits for her mother to tire herself out. 

And sure, being with Ned had definitely helped Arya and her mother mend their strained relationship, but Arya didn’t want to marry him just to make her mother happy if it didn’t feel right. 

“Oh, Ned, it’s so nice to see you!” Catelyn smiles and pulls him into a hug. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well, thank you. How are you?”

“I’m well. I think Ned is finishing up a few papers if you wanted to pop in and say hello,” her mother offers. 

“Actually, we should probably get going,” he says. 

“Then happy anniversary, you two.” Catelyn wraps Arya in a tight hug and then gives Ned another hug. “I hope you two have a nice time.” 

* * *

The car ride is quiet. Ned plays some music softly in the background, but Arya still feels like her tongue is stuck in her throat. Sansa had told her less than a week ago that Ned would be proposing and Arya hasn’t fully progressed past her shock yet.

She loves him. But she doesn’t think about marrying him. She isn’t sure how she feels about a proposal and she doesn’t even know if she’ll say yes or no yet. 

Her hesitation is telling her that she should say no.

But she would be sad to break up with him if she says no. And she can’t imagine that he’s willing to hang around for a while as he waits for her to make a decision. 

She has the horrible thought she wishes she was still with _him_. 

They had been broken up for over three years, and she had been doing pretty well with stuffing her feelings down, but… she wouldn’t be having this issue right now if she were with him. 

He wasn’t really the showy type. He proposed to her by telling her that he wanted to marry her and that he made her a ring after fucking her on the kitchen counter. 

They had come up with something romantic to tell her parents and sister, but they never had the chance to tell the faux story.

“You’re quiet tonight,” Ned comments as his hands silently tap the steering wheel. 

“I’m just thinking,” she says. 

“About what?”

Arya lets out a small breath.

_About how I don’t think I love you the same way that you love me because you’re thinking about proposing to me and I’m thinking of my ex fiancé._

“Graduation,” she lies. “It’s just around the corner.”

“You’re right! We’re only a few weeks away, now. Have you applied for any internships?”

“I haven’t turned in any applications yet, but I’ve been looking.”

“That’s good.”

“Yep! What about you?” Ned pulls into the restaurant’s parking lot. 

“Your father offered me a position at the firm.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Arya says, even though if they break up tonight, it’s really not that great. He parks the car and shuts the engine off. 

“Yes.” Before Arya has the chance to ask if he accepted, Ned is already out of the car and on his way to open her door. She picks up her phone and jacket and follows him into the restaurant. It was a very nice place, the one where her father usually took her mother on their anniversary. She fidgets with the collar of her dress. It’s something of Shireen’s and Arya appreciates Shireen’s taste of plainer dresses. Myrcella had been very invested in trying to take Arya to get her nails done, but Arya hated the mobility that acrylics prevented her from having, so Myrcella settled for painting her nails a simple shade of red. 

And Arya didn’t have the heart to tell Myrcella that she probably wasn’t going to be taking photos of her ring finger later tonight. 

**But I miss screamin' and fightin'**

**And kissin' in the rain**

**And it's two a.m. and I'm cursin' your name**

**You're so in love that you act insane**

**And that's the way I loved you**

“I’m just not sure how you’re planning to graduate when you’re only taking two classes a semester. You’re going to be forty by the time you get your Bachelor’s,” Robb berates. 

“Well, I must say that I’m glad to hear that your math major paid off since you can count so well.”

Arya digs her fingers into Gendry’s bicep. She loved her family, but sometimes they could be dicks. Gendry couldn’t be a dick back if he planned on seeing her any longer, though. 

“At this rate, Arya will graduate before you.”

“Oh, well that works out great since I’m planning to freeload off of her for the rest of my life. It would be a little hard to do that if she doesn’t have a college degree.” Robb glowers at Gendry for a moment. Her mother and brother said it all the time. Gendry just wanted to play along with the lie. 

“Robb, sometimes it’s better to pace yourself and pay as you go for college. Gendry is going to graduate without any debt following him,” Arya interjects, trying to deescalate the situation between the two boys. 

Gendry tenses up beside her and pulls his arm from her grasp. As much as Gendry hated speaking, he hated it even more when someone spoke for him. 

“Yeah, it is better for me when my rich daddy doesn’t pay my way through it,” Gendry directs towards Robb, forgetting that his girlfriend shares the same situation. 

Arya stands from the ottoman before she snaps at Gendry. He felt a bitterness towards her background, like a dark cloud looming over them all the time. He very rarely spoke about his distaste for it aloud, but he alluded to it often enough that it was starting to cause a rift between them. 

But she really tried to avoid all arguments in front of her family unless she wanted another strike against him. 

“Arya,” he calls, with the decency to let some shame seep into his voice. She doesn’t turn around. Let him fend for himself among the wolves without a rich daddy. 

* * *

“Ned, you cannot—tell me you will not—allow this!”

“I…”

“Arya is not old enough to stay overnight with him. She doesn’t understand the gravity of a young woman in this family being caught up in a scandal, yet! Do you think it will be easy for Arya to marry if her future husband’s parents dig this up! She can not spend the night with him out of town. You need to put your foot down on this. You’re too soft with her.” 

“Very well, then. Bran will go along.”

“Ned!” 

“Dad!”

“No. This is an affair between the two of you,” Ned grumbles, looking between his wife and his youngest daughter. “You can figure it alone if you don’t like this option because I will not pick sides with either of you. Arya is seventeen, and soon she will be a grown woman, but you’re right, Catelyn. I will not allow her to spend the night with Gendry. Unaccompanied. Bran will attend the concert as well.”

**Breakin' down and comin' undone**

**It's a roller-coaster kinda rush**

**And I never knew I could feel that much**

**And that's the way I loved you**

“What is that?” Catelyn shrills, pushing Arya’s tank top aside to reveal the clear bandage covering her shoulder blade.

“Um.” 

Catelyn turns to Gendry and breathes out of her nose so hard that it’s a wonder fire doesn’t come out. “Is this your doing?”

Gendry clenches his jaw and turns to look at Arya. “It’s a tattoo,” she answers, quietly. 

“A tattoo. I know it’s a tattoo! Why did you get one? Good heavens, I should probably take you to get a tetanus shot knowing the places that _you’ve_ brought my daughter to!” Catelyn directs the last part of her outburst towards Gendry. 

“Ah, you must have heard the story of how we met, then,” Gendry starts. “Yeah, Arya was ten years old hanging out in a seedy bar with twelve year old me.”

Arya presses her hand to his stomach. “Stop,” she begs. 

“I don’t appreciate that attitude.” Catelyn inspects Arya’s arm again. She reaches for the corner of the bandage. 

“Don’t—” Arya begs. 

“You’ll infect it,” Gendry snaps. He had insisted on showing Arya how to care for the tattoo, since it was her first and he had been getting them with forged parent permission since his sixteenth birthday, but now he probably regretted coming to the house with Catelyn home. 

“I just want to see what you’ve branded on your body like you’re part of a cattle herd.” She pulls on Arya’s skin to smooth out the bandage so she can at least view the marking. Arya winces a little as she tugs the sensitive flesh. “A wolf with a fish in its mouth?” Catelyn asks. 

“It’s for you and Dad,” Arya murmurs. She had been stupid for thinking that Catelyn wouldn’t have lost it if she was honoring her parents. 

She had been wrong. 

“You want to do something for me and your father? Buy us a card,” Catelyn retreats from the living room, probably to call Arya’s father. 

* * *

“What if for some reason Catelyn has to identify you because you—I don’t know, died or something—and they’re like ‘Does your daughter have a distinct ass tattoo?’ And she’ll be all like ‘What ever could you mean?’”

“Shut up, my mom does not sound like that.” Arya shoves his chest. To be perfectly honest, Arya’s only minimally sure on how she acquired the tattoo. She woke up after Myrcella’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas on Sunday and the choppy lettering was etched into her skin forever. She thought about unironically sticking a note to the back of her license whenever she goes out to drink that reads  _please_ _do not allow me to get any tattoos._ Instead she decided to cut back on her public drinking, unless she’s in the mood to face her mother’s wrath for making the front page for all of the wrong reasons. 

“They’re gonna have to tell her that your ass says ‘bite me.’ Personally, I think she’ll find a way to bring you back to life just to kill you for it.” 

“Really?” Arya agrees with him, but still. It is _her_ ass. Her mom hasn’t realistically had to see Arya’s ass in like twenty years, so she never has to know. 

“Really. What do you think your father would say? Or Robb? Oh my gods, if the press found out, it would make the paper by morning. _The Young Patrician_ _Sports a Provocative Tattoo in an Intimate Spot,_ read page 3 for insider details!” 

Arya rolls her eyes. “Bite me.”

Gendry snakes his arm around her waist and reaches for the hem of her (his at some point, definitely) t-shirt. 

“Gladly.” 

**He respects my space and never makes me wait**

**And he calls exactly when he says he will**

**He's close to my mother**

**Talks business with my father**

**He's charming and endearing, and I'm comfortable**

Ned has only ever kissed Arya. In their two years of dating, he’s never even tried to cop a feel of anything below her shoulders. 

She didn’t mind. She didn’t particularly enjoy the feeling of leaving most of their kisses wanting more, but she knew that Ned was devoutly practicing his religion, and she didn’t want him to feel pressured into anything. Once, Arya straddled him in the midst of a kiss and Ned had been so ashamed about getting hard that he went home immediately and didn’t meet her eyes for a week. 

Arya was still trying to find the guts she needed to tell him that she wasn’t a virgin. 

And he would probably need at least a few days to process her “bite me” tattoo. 

* * *

Arya answers her phone on the second ring. She didn’t want to be too eager for the call and seem like she had been waiting for it, but she also knew that Ned would sometimes chicken out and hang up after the first few rings. She had to be prepared. 

“Hello,” Arya says. 

“Hi. It’s Ned.”

“I know.” 

“Right. Um, I was just calling to say that I had a really nice time getting dinner.”

“I had a really nice time, too.”

“Good. Are you busy on Friday night?”

* * *

“Mrs. Stark, may I just say that these are the best lamb chops I’ve ever had?” Catelyn smiles widely at Ned. “And did you get new earrings? That sapphire matches your eyes perfectly.”

Catelyn almost lets a small blush on her cheeks at his flattery, but she turns to look at her husband. 

“Thank you, sweetheart. They were a gift from _my_ Ned.” 

The only bad thing Catelyn ever said about Ned was that it would sometimes get too confusing with both Neds present. 

* * *

“Alright, Mr. Stark, you’re all set to go! When you want to check on your stocks away from home, just sign into this app and then you can check on them without having to be in front of your computer,” Ned grins and hands the smartphone back over to Mr. Stark. 

“Thank you!” Eddard pushes his reading glasses onto the bridge of his nose and starts to type his login info into the app—with one finger. But Ned waits patiently for him to finish typing his email address _and_ his twenty-three character password to run through the capabilities of the app with Eddard one more time. 

**But I miss screamin' and fightin'**

**And kissin' in the rain**

**And it's two a.m. and I'm cursin' your name**

**You're so in love that you act insane**

**And that's the way I loved you**

“I’m here to pick up Arya,” Gendry announces.

“We’re getting ready to leave for mass.”

“And Arya asked me to pick her up so she could avoid mass.”

Catelyn doesn’t even attempt to hide her scowl as she leaves Gendry outside on the welcome mat to wait for Arya. She hadn’t quite adjusted to the idea of Arya dating Gendry. He had been merely tolerated when they were just friends, but now the only thing she could think about when she saw him was that he would ruin Arya's reputation. 

* * *

“Just put it in,” Arya grumbles. She had heard enough about the pain involved with losing her virginity from Myrcella and would like to get it over with as soon as possible. She said that after the first few times it started to feel nice and Arya was eager to get to that point. And her curfew was in an hour.

“I’m trying to do it right,” Gendry argues. “If you don’t want me to do it then I won’t do it, but can you admit that I probably know more about this than you?”

“How would you know more than me? I’m the first girl you’ve kissed. Is it just some guy thing, then? A sixth sense?” Arya mocks. 

“I’ve watched …” his ears turn red and the shade starts to creep up his neck. “some… you know,” he clears his throat, ”videos,” he finally spits out. 

“Oh my Gods, _porn_? You think that I want to try something from porn right now?” 

“No! It’s not…” Arya raises her eyebrows at him. “You know what, maybe we should wait.”

“No,” Arya groans. “We just don’t have a lot of time right now.”

“It won’t take long. I don’t think,” he says. 

“I thought you knew more than me." Gendry rolls his eyes and runs a hand over her thigh. 

* * *

“Does it hurt?” Gendry breathes out, his voice strained. Arya stops biting his shoulder. She had been trying to prepare herself for the pain Myrcella warned her about, but it doesn’t hurt. 

“No.”

“Told you,” he teases. Arya kisses him. He doesn’t last very long. 

**Breakin' down and comin' undone**

**It's a roller-coaster kinda rush**

**And I never knew I could feel that much**

**And that's the way I loved you**

Gendry raps on the wall beside the shower. Arya turns the water off and pokes her head out to listen. “So I tried to make you that fancy rice thing that you like for our anniversary… and what do you want on your pizza?” 

* * *

Gendry’s hand slams into the cabinet above Arya’s head. He digs his left hand into the soft flesh at her hip and groans. 

“Touch yourself,” he begs. Arya complies and uses her other arm to keep Gendry from accidentally hitting her head on the cabinet. He squeezes her ass, right over her tattoo and moves his hand to the front of her thigh. Arya turns her head to kiss him and Gendry snaps his hips to hers. His hungry hand roams across her stomach, her breasts, her throat. He runs his fingers through her hair and pulls from the base of her skull, baring her neck to him.

“Gods, you’re so beautiful.” Arya grins. His arm tenses against the cabinet, showing off the muscles of his bicep and shoulder. 

“You’re beautiful, too,” she says. He grins back and rolls his eyes before he kisses her again. He bites on her lip and Arya moans into his mouth, which she knows drives him crazy. He slides his hand down the front of her body, purposefully teasing her nipples with his fingertips before reaching her hand furiously working between her legs. He brushes past, to her thigh and rubs his fingers down the sensitive skin before reaching under her leg to prop it up against the counter. Arya pulls her knee up onto the cool countertop and Gendry kisses her neck again. 

“I love you,” he murmurs into her ear. She turns her head. 

“Kiss me.” She pulls his hand away from her thighs and back to her center. 

“I love you even if you are demanding,” he teases and pinches her clit. She lets out a gasp and Gendry finally kisses her. Her stomach starts to feel airy and she grinds her hips against Gendry. He grunts against her lips and pulls his hand down from the cabinet to grab Arya’s neck. She bites down on his lip, and he pulls his lip from her mouth to replace it with his tongue. She gasps into his mouth again when he reaches for her tits. 

She grabs the edge of the countertop to steady herself when she comes and has to pull away from Gendry’s kiss to breathe. Arya pushes his hand away from her cunt and leans onto the countertop for him. He digs his hand into her hips and her ass and pounds into her. He grunts above her and Arya pushes back against his thrusts, trying to help him. He pulls his other hand away from her tits to give her ass a resounding smack and Arya can’t help it but to laugh because she knows that he’ll be embarrassed if she brings that up to him later. She would cherish the red mark that he left, though. He grabs for her hair and groans while he comes, stringing curses together. He lets go of Arya’s hair and puffs out short breaths before he leans against the cabinet on his forearm and rubs his free hand down Arya’s back. She smiles to herself and stays leaning down on the countertop for a while. 

“I want to marry you,” Gendry says, unprompted. 

Arya props her head up a little. “What?”

“I want to marry you. I made you a ring,” he says. “I just wasn’t sure how to give it to you,” he admits. “But I don’t want to wait any longer.”

“You want to marry me?” Arya almost feels like her heart is being squeezed from her chest. She lets out a slow breath. 

“I think I’ve made that clear.”

“I love you,” she says. “I want to marry you.”

Gendry rubs her back another time. “Let me go get the ring.” She can hear the smile in his voice, and probably a little bit of disbelief along with it. 

Arya reaches for his hand. “No. Let’s just stay like this for another minute, please.” 

“Okay,” he clasps her hand in his. 

**He can't see the smile I'm fakin'**

**And my heart's not breakin'**

**'Cause I'm not feelin' anything at all**

Arya studies everything she ingests thoroughly while on their date. It would be just her luck that she swallows the engagement ring, not even giving Ned the chance to return the ring. She makes it safely to dessert and prays to her Gods that Ned is planning on a private proposal for after they leave the restaurant. She would not be able to bring herself to publicly reject him if him kneeling in the middle of the restaurant caught the attention of the other diners.

“Arya,” Ned says. She holds her breath. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something.” Oh no. “I’m not entirely sure how to tell you this, so I’m just gonna say it.” Here it comes. Ned reaches across the table to place his hand over hers. “I love you, and I think you are a wonderful woman.” Gods, she really was not prepared for this. “But I think we should break up.”

Arya blinks and raises her eyebrows, cocking her head. 

That is not at all what she expected. 

“I… I agree,” she says with a small nod. 

“It has been a very nice two years, but I don’t think we’re right for each other. And something tells me that you still love him.” Arya lets out a sigh. She genuinely tried to move on from him, but she knew him for most of her life and was in love with him for at least half of that. She still wasn’t sure how to forget him. 

“Something?” Arya asks. Ned definitely notices that she doesn’t deny the accusation. 

“Some _one_. I was told that if I were to ask to take our relationship to the next level, I shouldn’t expect an ideal answer.”

“Bran.”

Ned nods. Arya almost wants to be angry with Bran. It was not his place to tell Ned something like that. But he didn’t do it to be cruel. He did it because he knew that Arya and Ned were just going to get hurt. 

Arya can’t be angry with Bran for telling Ned the truth. It wouldn’t have been fair to Ned. 

“I always… I think I kind of always knew that I wouldn’t be Gendry.” Arya almost winces at the mention of his name. It felt wrong to hear it after so much time had passed. “But I had convinced myself that eventually your feelings would go away and I would replace them.”

“Ned,” Arya sighs. She starts to feel horrible. She took a year to grieve the gouge that had been left in her heart when she lost her best friend and her boyfriend all in one go. She had known when she agreed to go on her first date that she wasn’t even close to being over Gendry, but her mother was starting to despair about Arya’s inability to find a suitable man to court. 

She was over the moon when she heard about Ned Dayne. And Arya did genuinely enjoy Ned more than any of the potential suitors that her mother introduced her to to every year like they hadn’t all known each other since they were six. It felt like her mother was truly proud of her for the first time in a while, and Arya thought that being with Ned would help the grieving process.

“I turned down the position at your father’s firm because I knew that I couldn’t work there after breaking up with you.”

“You can still work there, Ned. My father adores you,” Arya promises. 

Ned shakes his head. “I don’t think it will be a good idea. I still love you, Arya.”

He gives her hand a small squeeze. Arya feels like it would be insensitive to say it back. 

* * *

Ned pulls his car into her parents’ driveway. “You know, if you’re ever alone at your father's charity ball, come find me and I’ll do my best to save you a dance,” he says with a small smile. 

Arya unbuckles her seatbelt and leans over the center console to give Ned a small kiss on the cheek. 

“Thank you, Ned. You will make someone very happy one day,” she promises. 

“Goodbye, Arya.”

“Goodbye, Ned,” she smiles and steps out of his car. 

**And you were wild and crazy**

**Just so frustrating, intoxicating, complicated**

**Got away by some mistake and now**

“You’re _marrying_ him?” Robb asks. He grabs Arya’s left hand to look at the ring finger.

“Yes.” 

“What the hell is your problem? Do you want our mother to be mad at you for your entire life? When you get divorced, do you expect that she'll just welcome you back like you didn't do anything wrong?”

“What the hell is _your_ problem? Can't you just mind your business for once?” Arya shoves past him to find Gendry. "And we're not going to get divorced." Robb had stopped her outside the bathroom, and she hoped that her mother didn’t have her claws in Gendry, yet. 

She searches through the living room and dining room with no luck and nearly crashes into Rickon. 

“Hey, have you seen Gendry?”

“Well, hello to you, too,” Rickon teases. “I saw him go outside.”

“Thank you,” she heads for the glass door. She turns her head over her shoulder, “and hi,” she calls before walking outside. 

Arya finally spots Gendry, with her mother. He looms over her—and has since he was fourteen—and yet, it’s the first time Arya has seen Gendry look small. His face burns a dark shade of red and Arya is pretty sure that tears are starting to well in his eyes. 

“You will never be good enough for her,” Catelyn spits. The pure venom in her voice combined with the sight of Gendry is enough to make Arya throw up in the bushes. 

**I'll be screamin' and fightin'**

**And kissin' in the rain**

**It's two a.m. and I'm cursin' your name**

**I'm so in love that I acted insane**

**And that's the way I loved you**

“I missed you,” Gendry sighs and wraps an arm around her stomach. 

“You just left your friends in the middle of a poker game because you missed me?” Arya blows her nose into a new Kleenex. 

“Yes.” Gendry presses the back of his hand to her forehead. 

“You’re going to get sick.”

“Don’t care. And you don’t even feel warm anymore,” he argues. 

“Will you at least make me some soup?” Arya asks with her sweetest smile. 

Gendry kisses her forehead. “Yes, milady.”

She attempts to groan at the title, but her throat is so sore that it comes out a little like a laugh. 

* * *

“I don’t think you can truthfully be considered the big spoon,” Gendry argues, sarcastically.

“Bullshit.”

“You’re not big enough to make me feel protected. And you’re cold,” he says. 

“What do you mean I don’t make you feel protected? I’ve got a travel bottle of mace in the nightstand.”

Gendry clicks his tongue. “It’s just not enough.”

“Shut up, little spoon.” He smiles and turns his head far enough to kiss her.

**Breakin' down and comin' undone**

**It's a roller-coaster kinda rush**

**And I never knew I could feel that much**

**And that's the way I loved you**

“Do you think we could leave soon?” Gendry asks. They had made an appearance at her father’s charity ball and Gendry was even willing to be dragged along for introductions for over two hours. The night wouldn’t be over for at least another three, and Gendry was starting to pull his collar up higher to hide the new tattoo on his neck. It was old enough that Arya had probably sucked more hickeys to it than was healthy, but new enough that Catelyn hadn’t quite adjusted yet. She glowered every time she caught sight of the bull edging up his collarbone. It was his first hard-to-cover tattoo, and Catelyn was definitely concerned that if she didn’t burn holes into it with her eyes every time she saw Gendry, her daughter would turn out the same. She had enough headaches ensuring that Arya was never seen in a backless dress during any of her father’s public events. 

Gendry tugs on his collar again. He had no problem telling anyone else in the world to go fuck themselves, but was respectful to Arya’s parents. It bothered her that that could never be enough for them. 

“I could always fake an emergency for you,” she grins. 

“I would make it worth your while,” he mumbles into her ear. 

* * *

“It’s not—you don’t have to wear it—if you…”

“Gendry,” she slips the bracelet onto her wrist. It’s a leather band with a small wolf head engraved into a silver oval. “It’s perfect. You made this?”

He nods and Arya leans forward to plant a kiss on his cheek. His ears tinge pink just enough to make Arya smile.

“Happy birthday,” he says. “Now get your license so I don’t have to drive your ass around anymore.” Her best friend could only be sweet for so long. 

* * *

“What if you just started buying big hoodies? Then you wouldn’t have to steal all of mine,” Gendry sighs and digs an old one from high school out of the back of his closet. Arya had most likely stolen the rest. 

“It’s not the same,” Arya starts. “They don’t smell like you.”

He rolls his eyes, but from then on he wears a hoodie every Sunday for her to have for the week. (Under the condition that she brings back one of his no-longer-scented hoodies in exchange for the new one.)

* * *

After Arya throws up, she storms her way over to stand between her mother and Gendry. 

She stands with her back to Gendry and holds her hands up to Catelyn. 

“Mom, stop, please just stop,” she begs and her eyes start to water and she doesn’t know if they burn from the vomit or if she’s just too upset to control them. 

“Arya, you’re throwing your whole life aw—”

“We’re leaving,” Arya sniffs quickly and grabs Gendry’s hand to walk to the truck. He wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and tries not to let Arya see. They leave without saying goodbye to anyone in the hopes that Catelyn doesn’t try to catch up with them. 

The drive is silent. Arya could cut the tension with a knife, but she fears that if she speaks she will start crying again, or worse, Gendry will start crying and that will make Arya cry. The last time Gendry had cried in front of her was when his mother had died. He refused to let people see what he was thinking and all crying did was make him avoid everyone around him until he could control the feeling. 

Arya couldn’t let him to close her out tonight. 

Gendry sets his keys on the countertop and pulls his shirt off on his way to the bathroom for a shower. 

“Can we talk?” Arya asks. She wanted to wait until they were at least home first, but Gendry still hasn’t said a word since they arrived at her parents earlier that night.

She hears the shower start in response. 

Arya sits down on one of the stools and crosses her arms over her chest. What should she even say to him? 

_I’m sorry that my mother told you that you weren’t good enough to marry me, but we should do it anyway?_

She chews on her lip while she waits for Gendry to get out of the shower, a habit that she never could break, and rubs her temple with her fingers. 

Gendry walks past her when he finishes showering and heads to their room. 

“So you’re not gonna talk to me?” she calls. 

Gendry doesn’t respond. Arya makes her way into their bedroom and leans against the door frame. 

“What did my mother say to you?”

Gendry lets out a strangled noise like a laugh and shakes his head. 

“Oh, just the usual. I was gonna ruin your life. I’ll never amount to anything. I can’t give you the life you should have," he snaps. 

“The life I should have? I just want to be with you, I don’t care about any of that other bullshit! And you’re not gonna ruin my life! You’re starting your internship in less than a month and it will be great for you! You—“

“Your mother _hates_ me. We’re never going to get to be together with her in between us and I won’t make you choose between her or me.” He pulls a tote down from the top shelf of the closet and gathers a chunk of Arya’s clothes from the rack to put it in the tote.

“What are you doing?” Arya asks. She already knows the fucking answer. 

“You have to pick one eventually, so I’m just making the decision for you and making it easy on the both of us.” 

“I don’t want to choose! I’m not choosing, you’re being ridiculous!”

“I know you don’t want to choose. So I’m choosing for you.”

“Why are you so fucking—” Arya pulls on her hair and lets out a groan.

“She told me I would never be good enough for you! She’s gonna get into your head and make you hate me. I don’t want to be around for that,” his eyes start to water again and he pulls another section of clothes from the closet and tosses it into the tote. 

“Gendry, stop!” Arya grabs his wrists and pulls them down at their sides. “I don’t care what my family says about us! I don’t care!”

“I know you care! You care about your family more than anything, and that’s good of you! But they hate me and so will you someday!”

“That’s not true.”

“It is.” Arya’s eyes burn and she can only stare at him, silently begging him to believe her. “I’ll help you move out in the morning. You can keep the ring,” he grabs his pillow from their bed and heads to the couch. 

**And that's the way I loved you**

**I never knew I could feel that much**

**And that's the way I loved you**

Arya digs through her dresser drawers, pulling the clothes out. She moves onto her nightstand, pulling out the odds and ends stuffed inside the drawer to no avail. She even tries looking in her desk, but it’s not there either. 

She runs a hand down her face and looks at the tote sitting on the top shelf of her closet. She had stuffed everything of his in there after that night. 

Arya tugs the tote down from the shelf and pops the lid off. She searches through the layers and finally finds the small piece of metal in the shape of a ring. 


End file.
